In general, cells are known to have different physical properties indicating electric characteristics such as conductivity, permittivity, and electric permittivity according to kinds, states, or the like of the cells. When the permittivity of a cell is measured by sweeping a frequency, a dielectric relaxation property is known to change according to the shape of the cell. Accordingly, devices or the like analyzing cells using such characteristics of the cells have been disclosed.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a blood cell analysis device including “a measurement unit that measures a complex dielectric constant spectrum of a suspension containing one blood cell or a plurality of blood cells and a detection unit that calculates a dielectric variable and/or an electric physical property of the suspension based on the complex dielectric constant spectrum measured by the measurement unit and detects a change in a blood cell state accompanied by drug administration from its calculated value.”
The blood cell analysis device can obtain a complex dielectric constant spectrum of a suspension containing blood cells and detect a change in a blood cell state from a dielectric variable or an electric physical property calculated from the complex dielectric constant spectrum.